Willowberry Designs ~ Alpaca Softies

February Giveaway!

In keeping with our ‘It’s a little bit French’ theme for this year, our February giveaway is a copy of Kaari Meng’s delicious book

The French-Inspired Home

To be in the draw for a copy of Kaari’s book, leave a message on this post

The giveaway will close in one week – Monday 5th March at 7pm my (Qld) time

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My favourite page in this book is p25.. or p47… or maybe p10.. or p……

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Just to whet your appetite, I thought we might plunge into 'The French Inspired Home' and inhale a few of the beautiful pages...

If Ratty doesn't draw your name from the pink bucket you might like to think about buying this book for yourself

(I don’t have a favourite… I LOVE the whole book, every single page…)

Seeya

Cheryl xx

'It's a little bit French' - part 2

Our February project is just delicious…

and sits so prettily with part 1 from January

Option 1 (above) is to make this month’s design into a sweet little doiley, the perfect size to pop under a little vase of lavender

Option 2 (below) is a gorgeous pincushion ~ with a hanging tab/snap.  This will go into my ‘Provence’ basket, destined to become part of my studio storage solution

Same design ~ two options

is that just a little bit clever?  I've made a few of these pincushions over the years, all with different border designs... some with an edge of chain stitch fencing in the hexie flower.  This one has a frill to make it even prettier

And this is the one I made for Fee a couple of years ago in a pincushion swap

Mmmm... rouenneries...

You’ll find the pattern links for our February fun over there on the right ~ look for the ‘It’s a little bit French’ heading under Pages

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Tomorrow we'll kick off our February giveaway!

Seeya

Cheryl xx

Revelations….

Do you snore? 

I snore

Sometimes I snore so loudly I wake myself up

(then I have a bit of a giggle and go back to sleep)

FLM says I even puff like a whale but I doubt that… that’s just too silly for words…

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Enough about that… this is what we’ve been doing

FLM’s been in the garden doing things that need to be done in a garden, it’s looking pretty ~ especially the front gardens.  The Seaside Daisies along the borders are my faves, although everything is growing well… must be the red soil!  Great for gardens but REALLY bad for white socks and furry cat paws…

My absolute favourite of all time ~ wisteria ~ is on it’s way too.  I’ll be able to see it flowering from my quilting room

It’ll be a while before it looks like the one at our old place but we’re patient (how pretty is that flower!)

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Quilting…

I think I have to make one like this ~ or I could just keep Bron’s quilt and play dumb when she rings me

It’s made from Pom Pom de Paris by French General… ‘nuff said…  Looks nice on my bed doesn’t it…?  I might just close the door and pretend I know nothing of it’s whereabouts

This is the one I’m currently working on… it’s stunning!  almost finished, I’ll share more photos when it’s back with Sue.  It’s taken me right out of my comfort zone but I’m loving it so far.  Another day or two and it will be ready

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CATS

Ninja cat, Theo, comes for a visit now and then so he can run around the back yard and hide in the plants (and eat grasshoppers and annoy the bejeezus out of Ratty)

Look at this sweet little guy, so cute, a perfect little furry angel…

Wrong!!  He’s not sitting on the floor.  He got bored and jumped from the floor to the top of the fridge.  Then he discovered the cat cupboard.  Perfect size, perfect fit, perfect viewing platform :)  crazy cat…

Ratty has stolen one of Theo’s toys and for two & a half minutes each day he becomes a kitten again

Look at that sweet little face… :)

Tomorrow we head down to Brissie so that Rod Stewart can sing to us… I think I need to write that again

ROD STEWART

OMGoodness, ssshhhhhh, we’re going to the Rod Stewart concert

And then on Thursday we’ll head down to Ikea.  I'm taking the Treasurer (who has a day off) and has been known to make impulsive purchases.... with only a hint of encouragement from me.....

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Today is the 21st Feb, that means it’s only 4 more days until I share part 2 of our ‘It’s a little bit French’ fun

Snippets…

AND there will be another giveaway commencing on the same day

Seeya, I need to go eat a pancake or two… my imaginary friend has been cooking again.  I think I’ll keep her…

Cheryl xx

Fresh flowers

In the house.. gorgeous.. love them..

Most times they’re nothing special, just a few pickings from the garden, a little bundle of lavender ~ sometimes a bunch of carrot tops with a few weeds from the cow paddock next door does the trick

And if there are no flowers (or flowering weeds) in the garden?

Invent some!

I love this photo from Rosalie’s book ~ ‘A Stitch in Time’

so I danced my hexies out into the garden this morning

cute…

Paper piecing is a great ‘front of the telly’ activity… I started this one last night, have no idea what I’m going to do with it but it’s my first venture into a non hexagon world of paper piecing.  This grasshopper has much to learn :)

Fee has a lovely hexie idea for a quick gift ~ here

seeya next time

Cheryl xx

Waiting patiently

I’ve been patiently waiting now for two weeks for a little replacement part for my longarm machine – not a biggie… just a little one but a very important one!

It arrived on Thursday – yay!  and I was able to test it out today on one of my own quilts

A few weeks ago I added the borders and today I quilted it… and I love it!

(and the stitches are perfect… gotta love that)

I thought about doing some heavy custom quilting but in the end I really just wanted to test my machine so I opted for a flowing, feathering edge to edge design.  I like the way it brings the plain’ish hexagons to life

And just look at the gorgeous backing fabric… I picked up a bundle of backing fabrics for peanuts a few months ago and this one was just meant to be.  Perfect colours, it even has some mini hexagons scattered throughout the bouquets :)

  

I’ve also been working on the wedding quilt for our niece, just small snips because we want it to be a surprise

I want it to represent the sand, sea and sky.. but in a simple, fresh and uncluttered fashion.  And I have an idea for some creative quilting to finish it off, if I don’t run out of time!

I’m so tempted to take my finished hexie flowers out into the garden for a bit of photo fun… maybe tomorrow :)

Seeya next time

Cheryl xx

Little doings

With a ‘little bit french’ flavour… Cute!

And here’s how

Take a few of these… I used 3/4” papers

Pair them up and remove the papers

Add a slightly smaller hexie of batting to the inside of each one

Make a twisted cord using stranded cottons, crochet cottons, specialty threads… or make 23 :)

(Ensure that the ginger cream puff is supervising ~ if you don’t have one, borrow the neighbour’s)

Force the pairs into a tango with the twisted cord between them… slip stitch them together ‘till death do they part…

Add one of these… or a button

And before you know it…

your jug will be half full!

~ Some of these are destined for faraway places ~

Remember, part 2 of our ‘It’s a little bit French’ fun will be here on February 25th

Au revoir… :)

Cheryl xx

March is going to be a month full of family stuff ~ Waterboy and his Country Princess are heading off on an overseas holiday, there’s a birthday or two or seven, our niece’s wedding at Kingscliffe (It’s been a while since we had a family wedding.. it will be a big familly catchup on that weekend!) and we’ll be packing for a cruise with Nisey & the Wayne… Plus a secret… LOADS of fun coming up!

Wednesday visitors and a little bit of sunshine

 

This bunch of galahs gather along the back fence almost every afternoon

and then they were gone :)

remember my tiny pink feather?  It came from one of those crazy galahs…

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The sun came out today for the first time in over a week

The chook house dried out and the washing danced in the sunshine

And Blossie arrived with Theo, a loaf of sour dough bread (to dunk in our pumpkin soup), ‘Valentine’s Day’ dvd and some raspberry filled white choc lamingtons.  She’s a fabulous little cook, much better in the kitchen than me.  And I love that…

I made a tote a while ago.. I was going through some craft magazines looking for a fun garden design to suit my stash of ‘Sunkissed’ fabrics

I found this one… but I can’t remember which magazine and I can’t remember who designed it! 

The happy flowers are perfect with the Sunkissed range.  I’m going to search for that magazine so I can tell you where to find the design, it’s so sweet ~ and I made a tab from one of the prints as a reminder.  Sunshiny days are kind of nice

My sunshine tote is just the right size for toting around a medium sized box of cornflakes… if I wanted to tote a box of cornflakes

Seeya!

Cheryl xx